It has been revealed in a recent unofficial One Piece Podcast that a fourth season of the action adventure anime ‘One Piece’ will be released by FUNimation Entertainment. The podcast is unofficial, but hosted by FUNimation senior Brand Manager Curtis Shaw and voice talents Christopher Sabat and Colleen Clinkenbeard (who did the voice for Roronoa Zoro and Monkey D. Luffy, respectively), so the announcement does hold a lot of weight and can be confirmed as authentic.
Curtis Shaw further revealed that FUNimation has in fact acquired episodes 206 to 264 of the ongoing series, and has also acquired rights for HD Blu Ray and DVD release. Another exciting part of his announcement is that starting from the 207th episode, One Piece will start being broadcasted in 16:9 widescreen format, similar to the way they are broadcast in Japan. So say goodbye to stretching, cropping, and letterboxing, and say hello to the Straw Hat Pirates in high def widescreen.
The One Piece anime is also streamed for free at FUNimation’s website and at Hulu, in both dubbed and English subbed formats. The Anime is currently on episode 521, which, like most anime, is behind the manga, which is already on chapter 644.
[Source: OnePiecePodcast]
